LONDON (Reuters) - A Formula One pitstop could take less than two seconds this season, according to world champions Red Bull who belatedly claimed a record of 2.05 on Wednesday.
The British-based team said they had beaten McLaren's previous record of 2.31 seconds, set in Germany last year, on five separate occasions at last month's controversial Malaysian Grand Prix.
The achievement got little attention at the time, with the main focus on the Red Bull drivers who ended the race barely talking to each other after Sebastian Vettel ignored team instructions and overtook Mark Webber to win.
Red Bull said their car data showed stationary times of 2.13 for each driver's first change of tyres. Webber's second stop was recorded as 2.05 with his third and fourth stops timed at 2.21 and 2.26.
"There's always a quicker stop out there, and it's possible this season we'll see the magical two second barrier breached at some point," the team said on their website (www.infiniti-redbullracing.com).
Pitstops in Formula One have become almost a blink-and-miss experience since mid-race refuelling was banned in 2010, with teams developing a range of technology to shave off more fractions of a second.
Watch Mark Webber's record breaking pit stop here:
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